
Air India crash aftermath: What are the steps Centre is taking to strengthen India's aviation sector? Union Minister answers
In a written reply to Rajya Sabha, Murlidhar Mohol, MoS, Civil Aviation said that the data from one of the Flight Recorders of AI-171 (VT-ANB) has been downloaded in the Flight Recorder Lab of the AAIB at Udaan Bhawan. He also stated that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has undertaken several efforts to strengthen the country's aviation safety on a regular basis.
'An Investigation has been ordered by Director General (DG), Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) under Rule 11 of the Aircraft (Investigation of Accidents & Incidents) Rules, 2017 to determine the probable cause(s)/ contributory factor(s) leading to the accident. Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) – India has a robust mechanism to enhance the aviation safety to ensure the safe operations,' the Union Minister said.
A look at the steps taken by the DGCA for ensuring safe flight operations in the country:
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Time of India
13 hours ago
- Time of India
Runway 2 used by 3K flights sans adequate fire safety for 6 months
Chennai: More than 3,500 flights operated on Chennai airport's secondary runway during simultaneous use of the two runways between April and October 2024 without adequate fire safety measures, an audit by the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) found. The audit, done in October 2024 found the airport had only four crash fire tenders instead of the stipulated six — three each for the main runway and secondary runway. There was only one fire tender for the secondary runway, that too had suffered multiple technical snags and failed to meet the requirements. "At least three fire tenders were unserviced and lacked equipment, and a non-functional dry chemical powder tender was deployed as a responding vehicle for several days," said the report. It also noted that two fire tenders in use since 2008 were past their shelf life of 10 years. You Can Also Check: Chennai AQI | Weather in Chennai | Bank Holidays in Chennai | Public Holidays in Chennai The survey highlighted 63 safety parameters as unsatisfactory, including three 'level-1 lapses' to be complied with on a priority basis before Nov 2024. The task and resource analysis (TRA) for Chennai airport was not updated after 2022 in line with the simultaneous operations on the runways. Aerodrome Rescue and Firefighting (ARFF) Services is the first line of defence during any aircraft-related emergency at airports. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Learn More - How Donating Sperm May Support Your Income SpellRock Undo Their role spans rescue, fire control, passenger safety, and coordination, making them vital to aviation safety and disaster preparedness. They are aligned with ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation) and DGCA standards to respond to the situation and initiate rescue operations within three minutes. DGCA said ambulances stationed at the airport were past their expiry date. Other deficiencies included expired proximity suits, inadequate breathing apparatus for firefighters, and lower quality of foam used to extinguish fire. An airport official said the airport needed just three fire tenders as per DGCA Civil Aviation Requirements (CAR), but it had an additional tender. "We responded to the DGCA report and addressed the lapses. The ambulances were replaced in June this year, and two new crash fire tenders were added in May," said an official. Reply to an RTI application revealed reduced simultaneous operations on the two runways after the DGCA report. While the number of flights operated from the secondary runway ranged from 700 to 950 between April and Oct, it came down to around 300 in the following months as flights were operated on the secondary runway when the main runway was closed for operations twice weekly. Captain Ranganathan, a former pilot and air safety expert, said that ARFF, unlike other fire services, is not about precaution but a mandatory procedure. "For even abnormalities during take-off and landing of flights, the airport should be prepared for crash landing, for which the ARFF should be ready to respond," he said. He recalled the Air France crash at Chennai airport in 1999 and the Air India Express flight crash in Mangaluru in 2010 and said the casualties would have been fewer had the ARFF teams reached the site immediately. DGCA can initiate action for not complying with 'level-1 lapses' beyond the deadline, he said.


Hindustan Times
15 hours ago
- Hindustan Times
Environment ministry notifies rules for management of contaminated sites
NEW DELHI: The Union environment ministry has notified the Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025 for remediation of contaminated sites by those responsible for contamination These rules are important in light of incidents such as the Baghjan oil field blowout in Assam in 2020 The rules also provide for voluntary remediation of sites that are not already identified as contaminated. The local body or district administration, on its own or on receipt of a complaint from the public, shall identify an area affected with contaminants and list all such areas as suspected contaminated sites in its jurisdiction on a centralised online portal, according to the rules. The notification names 189 contaminants and their response level for agricultural, residential, commercial and industrial areas. A senior official said the rules will not apply to radioactive waste as defined under clause (xxii) of rule 2 of the Atomic Energy (Safe Disposal of Radioactive Wastes) Rules, 1987 or mining operations as defined under clause (d) of section 3 of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 among others. But, if the contamination of a site is due to a contaminant mixed with radioactive waste or mining operations or oil spill or solid waste from a dump site, and if the contamination of the site due to the contaminant exceeds the limit of response level specified in these rules, then remediation of the site would be covered under these rules. The rules cover various halogenated aromatic compounds, pesticides, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organofluorine compounds, and some metals, among others. These rules are important in light of incidents such as the Baghjan oil field blowout in Assam in 2020, near the Maguri-Motapung Wetland and the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park, which impacted the ecosystems in the area. The local body or District Administration shall furnish the state board with a list of suspected contaminated sites on a half-yearly basis. Upon receipt of a list of suspected contaminated sites, the state board, either on its own or through a reference organisation, undertakes a preliminary site assessment of the suspected contaminated site by sampling and analysis within ninety days from the date of receipt of such a list. The state board shall then furnish a list of probable contaminated sites and investigated sites to the Central Board on the centralised online portal within thirty days from the date of completion of the preliminary site assessment. The state board shall issue a public notice restricting or prohibiting any activity during the preliminary or detailed assessment of the suspected or probable contaminated site, taking into account the risks involved to human health and the environment. It shall publish the list of contaminated sites on the centralised online portal, inviting comments and suggestions from the stakeholders likely to be affected, within sixty days of such publication. It is the state board's responsibility to identify, following an inquiry, the person responsible for causing the site contamination within a period of ninety days. In case the contaminated site has been transferred by the person (transferor) causing the contamination to another person (transferee), the state board shall determine the transferee as the responsible person. Where the responsible person is identified, the state board shall direct the responsible person to prepare a remediation plan and undertake remediation through a reference organisation as selected by the state board and bear all the expenses towards it. The state board shall review and approve the remediation plan submitted by the responsible person within three months from the date of submission of remediation plan, and forward it to the Central Board. However, where the responsible person is not identified, the state board shall, on its own or through the reference organisation, prepare a remediation plan within six months from the date of publication of the contaminated site, for undertaking remediation of the contaminated site either out of its own resources or through support from State Government or both and resources of Central Government. The central board may appoint any reference organisation to verify the completion of remediation activities. In all cases, funds for conducting preliminary assessment and detailed assessment for suspected contaminated site and probable contaminated site, respectively, may, to the extent feasible, be initially met in whole or part by the Central Government from the Environmental Relief Fund under sub-section (9) of section 7 of the Public Liability Insurance Act, 1991 and also by the State Government. Further, the central government shall constitute the Central Remediation Committee to review the remediation activities under these rules. The committee will consist of chairman, Central Board; a representative from the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs; the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), Ministry of Commerce and Industry; the Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals, Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers; the Ministry of Science and Technology; the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare; two technical experts from the field of environment, geotechnical and industrial waste management to be nominated by the Central Government among others. The state board may impose environmental compensation on any responsible person who does not comply with the provisions of these rules in undertaking the remediation or does not undertake the remediation under these rules in respect of a contaminated site and poses risks to human life and the environment, contributing thereby to loss, damage or injury tothe environment or human health. 'The Rules address a long-pending legal vacuum around the remediation of legacy pollution sires, but they place disproportionate operational and oversight burden on the State and Central Pollution Control Boards, which are already constrained by limited capacity. The composition of the Remediation Committees is also skewed toward industrial, urban development, and chemical sector ministries, with little to no representation from the Ministries such as Agriculture, Jal Shakti, or Environment which are important trustee of the soil and water. Furthermore, the absence of independent ecologists, public health experts, and social science raises concerns about balanced decision-making. There should also be a third-party audit or an independent verification mechanism in the remediation or monitoring phases for proper monitoring,' said Debadityo Sinha, Lead- Climate & Ecosystems, Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy.

The Hindu
15 hours ago
- The Hindu
Procedure to redress chemically contaminated sites gets legal teeth
The Environment Ministry has notified new rules under the Environment Protection Act that lays out a process to address sites that are chemically contaminated. Called the Environment Protection (Management of Contaminated Sites) Rules, 2025, these give a legal structure to the process of contamination, that until now was missing despite several sites being already identified across the country for decades. Contaminated sites, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, are those where hazardous and other wastes were dumped historically. This has most likely resulted in contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water that pose a risk to human health and the environment. Some of the sites were contaminated when there was no regulation on management of hazardous wastes. In some instances, polluters, responsible for contamination, have either shut their operations or the cost of remediation is beyond their capacity, thus the sites remain a threat to the environment. These sites may include landfills, dumps, waste storage and treatment sites, spill sites, and chemical waste handling and storage sites. There are 103 such sites across the country. Only in seven sites remedial operation has commenced, which involves cleaning the contaminated soil, groundwater, surface water and sediments by adopting appropriate technologies. A senior official in the Environment Ministry told The Hindu that the latest rules — made public on July 25 — were part of a process of 'legally codifying' the process in place once contaminated sites were identified. Under these rules, the district administration would prepare half-yearly reports on 'suspected contaminated sites'. A State Board, or a reference organisation, would examine these sites and provide a 'preliminary assessment' within 90 days of being thus informed. Following these, it would have another three months to make a detailed survey and finalise if these sites were indeed 'contaminated'. This would involve establishing the levels of suspected hazardous chemicals – there are currently 189 marked ones under the provisions of the Hazardous and Other Wastes (Management and Transboundary Movement) Rules 2016 – and if these exceeded safe levels, the location of these sites would be publicised and restrictions placed on accessing it. A 'reference organisation' — basically a body of experts — would be tasked with specifying a remediation plan. The State Board would also have 90 days to identify the person(s) responsible for the contamination. Those deemed responsible would have to pay for the cost of remediation of the site, else the Centre and the State — under a prescribed arrangement — would arrange for the costs of clean-up. 'Any criminal liability, if it is proved that such contamination caused loss of life or damage would be under the provisions of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (2023),' the official told The Hindu. However, contamination resulting from radioactive waste, mining operations, pollution of the sea by oil, solid waste from dump sites would not be dealt with under the provisions of these laws as they are governed by separate legislation.